Agora
Newmarket Films | Release Date: May 28, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
9
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is a movie about ideas, a drama based on the ancient war between science and superstition. At its center is a woman who in the fourth century A.D. was a scientist, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and teacher, respected in Egypt, although women were not expected to be any of those things. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Agora, Alejandro Amenábar's absorbing historical drama, proves that, in an era of movies made for iPhones with artistic ambitions to match, there are still filmmakers willing to swing for the fences. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterNatasha Senjanovic
It is a pleasure to see Weisz's scenes of scientific inquiry, which capture the passion of research and discovery without artifice or pretension. That the scientist is a woman makes it all the more engaging. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
The mother of all secular humanists fights a losing battle against freshly minted religious zealots in Agora, a visually imposing, high-minded epic that ambitiously puts one of the pivotal moments in Western history onscreen for the first time. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Weisz is an excellent Hypatia. For all her intelligence, there's something childish, off-kilter, vaguely otherworldly in her aura. She's just the type to be gazing into the heavens while around her all hell breaks loose. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
A bit of a puzzle. This is a good thing, since most movies plop down in easily recognizable categories and stay there, troubling neither their own intellectual inertia nor that of the audience. Read full review
70
SlateDana Stevens
Like "Spartacus," this movie is engaging because it's actually about something: the love of learning, the clash between science and religious faith, and the grim fact that political change often proceeds on the foundation of mob violence and genocide. Agora engages more effectively with this kind of big historical idea than it does with human drama. Read full review
70
MovielineMichelle Orange
The film's bleak conclusion becomes unbearable in context: Hypatia's death also signals the end of women in positions of intellectual prominence and the beginning of a period known -- not coincidentally -- as the Dark Ages. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
It's a vivid way to contextualize Hypatia's astronomical musings, but it's kind of out there, too. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
At the very least, Agora finally gives Rachel Weisz a role that almost exactly matches her intense, humorless, but undeniable star charisma. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineBarbara Goslawski
Best enjoyed as a rousing period piece. Read full review
60
EmpirePhil de Semlyen
Always intelligent and thought-provoking, it's a welcome return from Amenábar. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesMichael Ordoña
The subject is absorbing, but the lack of differentiation in dramatic levels makes the film feel longer than its 126 minutes. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
The result is an interesting but often frustrating effort by the director of "The Sea Inside," who proves that ambition and talent aren't enough to ensure a compelling drama. Read full review
50
Village VoiceEric Hynes
What's missing is a satisfying, plausible middle ground where heady ideas and metaphors coalesce into compelling drama. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Agora has everything except real drama. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The story's historical setting is fascinating, but the movie is populated by thin, uninvolving characters. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Weisz makes for a vivid, charismatic Hypatia, but the script lets her down. Read full review
40
Time OutNick Schager
Merely a paint-by-numbers condemnation of social intolerance. It's a slog of a sermon. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
The drama is torpid, the astronomy lessons pedantic, and the spear-and-sandal production values flat-out cheesy. The whole thing is also historically ludicrous. Read full review
25
New York PostV.A. Musetto
There are a few exciting battle sequences and the sets are lavish, but mostly the film meanders aimlessly for more than two hours. No wonder new sword-and-sandal movies are in short supply. Read full review
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